The Game of Thrones Season Seven Premiere Was HBO's Most-Watched Ever

Game of Thrones came back in a big way last night, and the show’s season seven premiere racked up some record-breaking numbers for HBO. “Dragonstone” drew in 16.1 million total viewers (or 32.2 million individual eyeballs), making it the pay cabler’s most-watched season premiere of any series to date, per Variety.

That 16.1 million figure breaks down into 10.1 million people who watched live on HBO and five million who streamed or DVR’ed the episode. The total is an insane 50-percent increase over Game of Thrones’ season six premiere, which aired last April—in spring, when TV viewership is typically higher than in summer. “Dragonstone” also drew the highest amount of concurrent viewers on streaming platforms HBO Go and HBO Now.

And as if all that weren’t impressive enough, “Dragonstone” was also the show’s most-tweeted episode of all time. You tweeters posted 2.4 million of the darn things during the show, seven percent of which were about that Ed Sheeran cameo.

Clearly, we can all agree: It’s great to have our Thrones back. Read Josh Jackson and Shane Ryan’s review of last night’s episode here.

The Game of Thrones Season Seven Premiere Was HBO’s Most-Watched Ever